Wednesday, 19 June 2013

Taxon of the Day: Pseudotsuga menziesii

Pseudotsuga menziesii

Today’s
entry for Taxon of the Day has again been chosen for its prominence on the i4Life homepage. The Catalogue of Life is built
on the collective knowledge of taxonomic specialists worldwide. There are still
taxon gaps that need to be filled because either there are not the
specialists in those areas to fill them, or the specialists that there are, are
not creating electronic checklists. However, this is not the case for the group
from which today’s entry belongs.

Psuedotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco, is a
well known conifer commonly known as Douglas-fir in the UK and US. However, in
China you would call it ‘hua qui song’, in Spain ‘pino real colorado’ and
elsewhere many other things: The Species Details page of the Catalogue
of Life lists 23 different common names.

Three-pronged bracts

Whatever you choose to call it, it is hard to get confused with any
other tree because the cones are full of three-pronged bracts that unmistakably
resemble a mouse’s back legs and tail. It is not quite as straight forward in
the taxonomic world however – treated as two varieties (coastal and inland) by
the Conifer Database that supplies the Catalogue of Life other taxonomists have
been known to view it as two sub-species and also previously, separate species.
Thanks to the Conifer database and the work of taxonomist Aljos Farjong, the
Catalogue of life contains a taxonomic record of all 614 known conifer species including
common names, making it a very useful resource for evergreen tree enthusiasts
everywhere.